


A Billion Years

by tokyoblackbird



Series: Albatross [2]
Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 04:32:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2718884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokyoblackbird/pseuds/tokyoblackbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the series premise is explained. AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Billion Years

**A Billion Years**

**[?]**

* * *

 

_Winter lives in my bones..._

_When you awake, you're alone._

\- Stars, "Winter Bones"

* * *

The winter king was infamously cruel, but sprawled upon the glass floor of the king's chambers, Fai could see only tranquil indifference in the king's blue eyes. Tranquil, the king reclined, in a bed piled high with silver satin and mink fur as delicate as fresh snow. "Go greet the dawn, my love," he said. No warmth, but tranquil.

The guards tightened their grip on Fai's arms; their mail gloves bit into his skin. Through the open window, far across the wide room, a few stray snowflakes tumbled in and stuck to the sheer curtains; beyond, no doubt, a black robed priest paced a furrow in the courtyard, dragging a coarse length of rope.

"My king—my sister—a word—" Fai protested as the guards dragged him away.

"Scheherazade," replied the king lazily. "Was that your name?"

The room, Fai noticed in the orange morning light, was a giant sundial. The silver headboard of the king's bed was the gnomon so that the king lay alternately in light or in shadow; the hours were marked upon the floor. The one innocuous exit was buried in a wide swath of black drapes: the blank night hours. A gray shadow, like a smear, indicated 6 AM.

"I know many stories," Fai said. "Please."

"I have no patience for lies," came the reply. The king sunk into the covers and turned his back.

Fai remembered the warmth in that bed, just a few minutes before. He shivered.

"They're all true. They're all true!" Now the drapes muffled Fai's voice. A guard unlocked the door, impervious to Fai's struggling. Through the open window—the calling of gulls. "Please!"

"Wait," said one guard.

"What," said the other, her hand on the knob.

One drew back the drapes. They bowed in unison; held the bow. "Your majesty." "Your majesty."

The king wore white silk draped about his hips; his chest was bare and unadorned. His hair hung straight and black and glossy down his back. Over the centuries, the sharp jut of his jaw and his stubborn brow had worn to an androgynous mask, beautiful and hard and unnatural. He stood tall, as a king should. He cast his own tall shadow on the sundial floor as he walked toward Fai, and stopped.

"I have more books than breaths you will ever take," the king said, "in my libraries. From countries you have never seen and will never see. What truths do you have that I do not?"

He tilted Fai's chin up. "Tell me."

"That—that can't be, my king," Fai replied.

"Oh no?"

"No," said Fai. "Because I have lived millions of lives, over billions of years." He kept his gaze steady. "I have wandered the empires and the centuries like taking a stroll down the beach."

The king smiled. "Some cry. Some plead. Some curse. Some lie. But I have never heard that lie before."

"It's the truth."

"The truth."

The king drew a long blade hidden by his hip, under his robes, and considered it.

Fai nodded, swallowed. "Yes."

"Let me offer some hospitality to the wanderer, then. Before his next journey."

The king turned and walked toward the open window. Closed it. Cut the wind and the gulls off mid-cry.

The room fell silent.

"I have lived only once," the king said. "But I can smell a lie."

He could, Fai knew. Everyone knew what had happened to the first Queen.

"Join me, Scheherazade, if you are honest."

The guards let Fai go, and pushed him forward. Fai took his place at the center of the room, under the shadow of the hour.

* * *

_"It seems we were always running from the same hungry gods," said Fai._


End file.
